Nebula is pleased to present an excerpt from Colin Mortonís
novel in progress, King's Own. The excerpt consists
of the beginning of the novel seamlessly connected to a later section so
that it stands alone as a unified piece. In this piece, Morton's
mastery of voice and tone creates a kind of verbal daguerreotype -- or
maybe an old, black and white snapshot such as one might find in the attic
of a prairie farmhouse.

Born in Toronto, the author grew up in Alberta. He
works as a teacher, editor, and writer in many media and has performed
and recorded his poetry with First Draft and other music poetry groups,
as well as in the animated film Primiti Too Taa. He was writer-in-residence
at Concordia College in Minnesota in 1995-96 and visiting poet at Connecticut
College in the fall of 1997. He has published one previous novel,
Oceans
Apart (Quarry, 1995), and five books of poetry, including
Coastlines
of the Archipelago (BuschekBooks, 2000).